Jeranimo inherited the lead by default when he finished second in the
Grade II San Gabriel Stakes on Jan. 16. Trainer Mike Pender anticipates
a more favorable scenario for the 6-year-old Congaree horse owned by
B.J. Wright when he tackles 4-5 morning line choice Mr. Commons and
others in Saturday’s Grade I Frank E. Kilroe Mile.

“He definitely runs better with a target, if you just leave him
alone and let him do his thing,” Pender said. “Just put him in cruise
control behind other horses and let him drop his bit. He can out-gallop
any miler in the country, I believe.

“But if you get to fighting and tussling with him, and the pace
is such that it’s so slow that he’s up there on the front end, it tends
to take away that turn of foot,” Pender added. “Hopefully he’ll find a
nice little spot to relax and put it into cruise control and you’ll see
that sizzling, scintillating three-sixteenths turn of foot that he’s
got.

“Wouldn’t it?” Pender said when asked about a déjà vu-like
possible stretch duel between Jeranimo and Mr. Commons. “He couldn’t get
to us in the Oak Tree Mile (second by three-quarters of a length last
Oct. 8) but he did have a little trouble in that race and we had a
perfectly clean trip.

“But if you watch the gallop out, Mr. Commons never got by us.
When Jeranimo is in front at the top of the lane, he’s tough to get by.”